California Baptist University 2022

Climbing the Rank s S Since their humble beginning in 1967, California Baptist University has achieved many great academic feats before they were part of any greater athletic organization. They are currently set to be fully initiated into the National Collegiate Athletics Association division-I level and the Western Athletic Conference after starting a transition process in 2018-19. years before winning in 2017. In the division-II PacWest era (2013-2018), CBU qualified 70 percent (66 of 94) of their eligible teams for the NCAA postseason. They ended this impressive era by going public with plans to become a division-I school on January 13, 2017.

CBU exited division-II and the PacWest in 2017-18 with an impressive display of athletic prowess. They won the D-II Learfield Directors’ Cup (after a runner up finish in 2017) and the PacWest Commissioner’s Cup for the sixth time and fifth year in a row. In the process of joining division-I sports CBU was set to undergo a four-year transition where it would not be eligible for the NCAA postseason. This transition period is coming to an end this year in the 2022 2023 year. CBU may not participate for WAC postseason competition in any sport which the winner is the league’s automatic qualifier for an NCAAChampionship (all sports outside of golf, track, cross-country and swimming). CBU has won eighty-one conference championships in its history, with thirty four coming in the PacWest, twenty-eight in the GSAC, nine in the RMAC, eight in the WAC and one in the WWPA and West Coast Conference. Additionally, they have won fifty-seven conference titles and fifty three conference crowns in the NCAA. With all these incredible feats and total of forty national championships in the past, CBU has a strong prospect for future success as the enter their division-I era.

Prior to joining the NCAA, CBU had been a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) member since 1969. Now they are making the, long trek to NCAA division-I status. CBU joined the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) in 1987. Within the next 25 years they achieved great success, earning 28 conference crowns. After a boom in enrollments and academic facilities in 1994, CBU was prepared to take on the college athletics world in a serious way. It captured 22 NAIA championships and racked up 149 individual national championships in the NAIA over 16 years (1996-2011), winning its first two national titles in 1999. CBU entered the application process to the NCAAin the summer of 2010 and then quickly rose through its ranks over the preceding years to culminate in their ultimate entrance into DI athletics. CBU steadily climbed through the D-II Learfield Directors Cup rankings, an award given based on a school’s overall success across all collegiate athletics. Starting with a ranking of 26th in 2013 and rising to 16th, 4th, and 2nd in the following